While the news itself was leaked beforehand, Paige made a shocking return to WWE at WrestleMania 42 last weekend, not just as a performer but as an in-ring competitor. That in itself was a stunner as WWE had previously disqualified Paige from ever wrestling again due to her neck issues, though the veteran ended up going to AEW where she was cleared to compete.
Following her return, Paige sat down with Stephanie McMahon to discuss her return, revealing that WWE officials made it clear that she had to successfully meet two conditions in order to be able to return as a wrestler: gain medical clearance from WWE's doctors and pass any relevant drug tests.
Paige also shared that Jelly Roll played a crucial role in her return as the two of them were on a podcast with Jelly's wife where the Rock's agent was also there. Jelly wondered to the agent why Paige wasn't back and it quickly led to a meeting with WWE President Nick Khan.
"So he calls Nick and within 30 minutes, Nick had said, ‘Sure, let’s get a meeting with her.’ A week later, he flies to LA to the WWE offices out there. I went and met him for about 10 minutes, you know, great guy. Love him. Big fan of him. Super smart. He’s got a business brain on him."
"I thought I’d be intimidated by him. But going in there, he’s easygoing. He goes, ‘Two things — your neck has to be okay and we have to do a drug test.’ I was like, ‘Fair enough.’ I was like, ‘Hey, I can control the drug test.’ I’m clean as a whistle. And so I was like, ‘I don’t know how my neck’s been. It’s been a few years since I got it checked. The last time I got it checked, it was perfect. So I’m not really concerned about it.’ And so, the next week I fly to Birmingham."
She shared that the medical meeting in Birmingham lasted a grueling 10 hours but when she got the good news of her clearance, she broke down in tears:
"It was a couple of things. The fact that my neck was good. And the last time I was in WWE, my neck wasn’t, and I had to retire. And I had to miss out on all these massive things like the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, all these things I didn’t get to be a part of, even though I was part of the group that helped kind of ignite that, right? And it’s just the fact that I’m going to be okay."
